Chronicles of Gaia (RP)

“I’ll go,” Terria said somewhat brazenly. “It can’t be that hard, can it?” She crossed her arms, thinking of the child calling her an angel. Maybe she used to be, but not anymore. Now she was just a metal sociopath, albeit a very resourceful and powerful metal psychopath. She'd try her best to be useful, and though Terria didn’t even admit it to herself, that child had given her a spark of hope to be a better person. But at the same time her fingers itched to be telekinetically fighting, which was maybe-probably the reason she had volunteered for the second Side-Quest despite having practically face-planted out of the last one.

"Awesome! Follow the leader everyone!" Laura smiled, clapping her hands together and leading the way through the mirror she'd summoned. The mirror's surface rippled and folded around her as she went though, a strange liquidic like appearance that seemed to both welcome her presence as much as it rejected her presence in this alternate reality. Still, it was merely a step and another before the Siren was through, floating in apparent total darkness. "Alright! Time for your mission briefing!" She called out to those who'd followed. Her words appeared above her in a floating-silvery text that was easy to read in case anyone couldn't hear her for some reason. "Welcome to HE.LL. Don't worry about the acronym, its not important. What is important is that you are substituting in as high security guards at HE.LL's Treasure research academy. Many of this world's rarest discoveries are held and studied closely here, meaning its just one big target for thieves and collectors. Laura snapped her fingers and suddenly the darkness changed. It was still dim, but the lighting was distinct enough to clearly make out their new surroundings. Or, as it was, the surroundings that were below them. The group was now floating in the air over complex of 5 buildings, arranged together in a long U. The buildings appeared to be constructed out of an unrecognizable material, and followed a strange architectural design. Similar buildings could be seen in the distance, a city several miles away. Perhaps most notable was that despite hovering at a great height, the group did not appear to be in the sky, rather, there was no sky. The entire world appeared to be an endless cavern. Dotted rarely by a natural pillar between the floor and ceiling, a height that rivaled some of the tallest skyscrapers. "Those buildings below are the ones you'll be guarding" Laura pointed downward at the U shaped courtyard and buildings. The 4 buildings making up the sides were around 3 stories high, while the building at the head of the courtyard rose up to nearly 5 stories in height. The courtyard itself was about the width of a building and a half. Laura waved her hand again and a mission statement appeared over her head, detailing the win-loss conditions. A thief has unleashed a powerful monster upon the Treasure Research Academy (TRA) in order to cause a distraction while it steals valuable articles. As a high security guard it is your duty to subdue the monster before the Thief escapes. However you must at the same time protect the buildings themselves from destruction, as it would result in the loss of many irreplaceable treasures. To Win: Defeat the monster before the thief can escape. The Thief will be captured upon the monster's defeat. Conditions: -If more than half of your teammates are killed, the mission is an auto failure and must be restarted. -All buildings must remain completely intact. Minor damage to the exterior is acceptable. "Alright, read up quickly because I'm about to give you all some insider information on what you're about to fight." Laura clapped her hands together, pausing to make sure everyone had finished reading the directions before continuing. "The 'monster' you will be fighting is a native to this dimension called a Plague Dragon. Its a large beast, usually around 18-20 feet tall, and its a little different than most dragons. So, first things first: Plague dragons breath a deadly gas. Do not breath this in. If you're lucky and only get a small breath or two, you'll just get paralyzed. If you really inhale it, it's gonna shut off your brain functions and leave you essentially dead on the ground. Your won't actually die unless it steps on you or eats you, but you're dead weight to everyone else now. No one's got an antidote for it so you're not getting up again. If you do die, you'll just get kicked out of the mirror and have to watch." Laura paused, evidently thinking about what next to warn the others about. "Its blood is extremely acidic. If it gets on you, it'll burn through your flesh in just under a minute. And as a warning, that doesn't go away if it gets soaked up into your clothes. It may slow down a bit, but you're gonna lose your skin if you don't ditch anything that's got the blood soaked into it. Now cause of the Blood plague dragons can't fly- their own blood burn away their wings. But it also means their flesh is hella dense and hard to damage, or else it would've burned away too. Now, plague dragons can absorb life energy from plant life. All the stuff in the courtyard is gonna die as soon as it arrives so don't worry about it, but if anyone tries nature magic on it, it's not gonna be pretty." That should be about it for the dragon, when you guys drop in you'll all be placed around at different buildings at random. Good and spread out like. You'll find yourselves with the standard weapons for guards. One will be the Plasmic spear. You can use it like a normal spear if ya like but its got a much more useful plasma-beam function for shootin your enemies. Other weapon is a heavy style blob-shocker. I know, real good name right? Its launched a blob of a sort of electrified jelly, grenade launcher like, when that blob hits something it sticks like glue and all the electricity is released AoE style. 'Bout a 3 diameter effect. Course you'll all have your own weapons still so just drop the guard ones if you wanna." Laura paused again, this time because she'd realized a bit of her old dialect had started to creep in while she was rambling about the dragon. Talk about embarrassing. She was glad that angel wasn't around to hear her slip up. Still, she'd said everything that needed to be said now, no need to keep waiting any longer. "That's all! Have fun!" Laura clapped her hands again and suddenly each member would find themselves standing on the ground, spaced evenly in front of the 5 buildings. They'd barely have time to examine the spear in their hands and the launcher strapped to their back when a ground shaking roar blasted across the courtyard. Which was then followed by the ground shaking crashes of enormous feet as the dragon suddenly came into view, charging madly in through the open end of the U into the center of the courtyard. The grass and foliage, which had been a pleasant blue color, wilted immediately. The beast roared again, waving its useless wings threateningly before letting off a blast of Poisonous gas. The fight had begun.

After Laura's explanation of the enemy they were about to face, Lynn wasn't feeling all that confident about joining anymore. Speed was her forte, so avoiding attacks would probably be doable, but she had no idea how she was actually going to deal damage to such a large beast, even with Otohime's help. Once they were on the ground, Lynn spotted the Plague Dragon, and immediately took notice of its poisonous gas. Nodding to Otohime, who had appeared next to her, the Persona lifted Lynn into her arms and quickly jumped on top of one of the buildings to keep her out of the Gas' range. "Have fun she said...this doesn't seem like much fun to me", she then muttered, before shaking her head. She had Otohime with her now, things would be different; and with Strength being her Arcana, surely she could damage this dragon somehow... "Guess I'll start by buffing everyone up...Tarukaja", Lynn wasn't sure who would even be in close range enough to receive the raise of attack from her ability, but last she remembered the range of the skill was quite large. Rikazu too had found himself near one of the buildings, and was already ensuring he'd stay out of the Gas' range as well. "So...damage to the buildings will cause us to fail this mission, eh? Let's start with that, then. Mighty Guard!" The protective magic would keep the buildings from getting damaged easily. Extending the range far enough to cover several of the buildings was child's play for him now. His mana was recovering quickly, too; he really was back at full strength. Well...almost, only by entering Trance would he truly be at full strength, but that was something the male wished to avoid even now. Large icicles formed themselves around the blue-haired mage, soon making their way towards the Dragon quickly. Soon enough he would cut loose at a closer range; once he'd figure out how to dispel the poisonous gas without anyone breathing it in. Muffled voices, that was all Mizuki could hear. She was in the kitchen, back at home. She took a few steps towards the livingroom, still keeping her distance while looking at the two male figures on the couch. "Why don't you come and say hello, kiddo?" The figure became clear now, as did his voice. Somehow she caught herself smiling upon hearing Rikazu's voice. But then there was the man next to him, he was new...or...was he? All she felt was terror when looking at him. "Hello there, my name is Seth, I'm a friend of your dad's", the man spoke. And then the scenery changed, the same man messing with her head...though there were others there too. Her friends...? Yes, they were her friends, they'd been traveling together for some time now. ...Had they really? The scenery then changed again, the very same man standing in front of her, a sword raised in his hand that he then brought down; only to strike Rikazu instead when he teleported in front of her. "Daddy!" Mizuki sat up straight in the bed, confused by yet another change of scenery. She looked around in panic, only to realize both Rikazu and that man weren't here. The pendant around her neck was glowing brightly, siphoning the excess magic that was being generated in her panicked state. "Just a...dream?" she murmured, unconvinced by her own words. It was then that she finally realized she wasn't alone in the room. She looked at the person sitting in the chair, almost as if it took time for her to recognize him, until finally she spoke again. "...Kudret? What are you doing here?" Her head was hurting from trying to figure out whether or not he was real.

Aislin stepped into the mirror after Laura, knowing she had no real choice in the matter if she didn't want to break the deal. She watched the words appear in text more than listened to the voice, though that was mostly due to the fact that she read quite fast. Her current mood evaporated once their surroundings came into sight. Aislin's eyes widened in awe, trying to take in everything at once, but when the newest batch of text appeared snapped her head up to watch it form. Okay, so they're playing as guards, have to defend the buildings from a monster, and good, inside info. Perfect. Aislin mentally took it back upon learning what it was exactly. She hadn't even known this type of thing existed, which did not bode well for her mental state for fighting. The poison blood was especially something she'd have to watch out for, as if it soaks through clothing there was a pretty good chance tennis shoes would get similarly soaked. Aislin perked a little though at the descriptions of the weaponry. Electricity was something she had always been comfortable with, living in a technological world with good enough hearing to listen to the hum at night from the fridge and the like. Knowing that.... Wait a second. There was no way she'd be able to carry that blob launcher normally. She'd get a literal strength boost just to make her match the level of the original guards. That thought made her grin in excitement; this could be a lot more thrilling than she had first believed. Now finding herself on the ground, she took a quick look around to discover she was on the far left end of the group. Looking across at the others, she spotted a white shimmer falling over the buildings while Lynn summoned a figure with a regal bearing and was lifted to the rooftops. Well that was that, she supposed, looking over at the stomp of the dragon and pulled the spear of her back shakily. She was definitely in over her head, but that just meant nothing to lose by going for it at this point. Kudret had been watching for some time now, conversing with his Mana and giving the rock rhino a more detailed version of what has happened during the time he has spent on this planet, from three action-packed days, to the good month and a half spent on the ship both to and from the island facility, to the previous two action-packed days traveling, up to today when he entered the tower with everyone else. Diemia had been mostly quiet save for the occasional comment, though shut up mid-way thanks to Mizuki jolting upright in bed. Kudret noted the bright glow of the pendant increasing before he looked at her face. The beastman waited until she had spoken to him to answer. "I volunteered to watch over you for Rikazu," he explained, trying his best to keep it simple. "He needed an outlet for his emotions, so I told him of a way to do that, and then offered to stay here and keep an eye on you." He paused slightly, ears flicking as a thought struck him. "Mizuki, how are you feeling right now? Sore? Tired?" ((A couple of weeks to the island... and three weeks of drifting. Had to go check.))

Celere had instantly ditched the weaponry, she had no need for it and doubted she'd need to do anything higher than Level One of her myriad transformations, upon locking eyes with the Dragon, she hesitated for a brief moment, thinking to herself *Close Quarters is off-limits, chance are touching it would spell a swift end, Ki Blasts it is, test the waters first* silently transforming into the first level, whilst taking note of Rikazu shielding the designated targets and the small rush of power in her veins from an outside source, she let loose a fairly large Ki Orb... it bounced off and smacked her clean in the face before exploding on impact. *Note to Self, it resists those too, Level One. Not enough for this.* Toré had by now slid down to the floor, a red trail left behind on the wall, so thorough had the beating of his own skull been, just to try and get rid of the impending control freak, he'd successfully cracked it, tiny specks of dust scattered on the floor beneath him as his Soul had cracked under the strain of the constant self battering, he was tired of this, but for now the pressure and impending loss of self autonomy was gone, "I really gotta find a way to stop this from happening..."

Kudret's words gave Mizuki a slightly uncomfortable feeling. Rikazu had...left her side? Even though that man could come back? He needed an outlet for his emotions? What did that even mean? And why was it...that the thought of him leaving made her chest tighten so? It didn't make sense, she hated--...no, there was a different feeling there now, a feeling attached to the word she kept finding herself uttering, 'daddy'. Rikazu hadn't denied it when she called him that...or had that just been a dream, too? She didn't know anymore, nothing made sense. "Confused...afraid..." she finally responded to Kudret. "My head...is pounding, and my body feels...so heavy..." As she said that, she let herself fall backwards again. Then another thought crossed her mind as she looked across the room again. "Kuja...isn't here either..?" She could feel her panic returning at that. Rikazu leaving her side was one thing, but Kuja too? There had to be something wrong for them both to leave her. Was what she'd seen not a dream after all, and was Rikazu actually hurt? "I should...go find them..." Despite saying that, Mizuki wasn't able to move an inch. Ayanami had teleported himself and Kuja up to one of the cliffsides, though close enough to keep an eye on the girl below, as well as the escaped battle slaves. The teleportation felt strange to Kuja, different from what he was used to; it was a portal of darkness that they simply walked into, bringing them to the cliffside in a mere moment. Kuja closely observed the situation below; despite Ayanami's words, the girl wasn't moving an inch, she just stood frozen in place. The group she was facing, however, had noticed the young girl and some of them were moving towards her. Most of them were holding weapons, ones that they could activate with their Zaiphon at any moment to attack the girl; no doubt they'd realized she was part of the Barsburg military. Said attacks soon started, though none of them seemed to harm the girl despite being direct hits. Kuja looked over to Ayanami, his confusion only growing when a small amount of blood trickled down from the man's mouth. "You protected her?" Kuja's eyes were narrowed; the man hadn't moved from the cliffside either. A small wave with his hand made the blood disappear from Ayanami's mouth, his voice cold as he spoke. "Of course. It would be a problem if she died already."

Kudret frowned in concern, ears wilting slightly in response to his emotions. He noted that since the ship and getting Diemia he had been allowing his ears and tail to express his emotions, but now wasn't the time for that. Kudret leaned forward and rested a gentle paw on her arm, the act bringing him to brace himself on the edge of the bed with the other. "Please, you must rest. You're in good hands, I promise. They'll both be back soon." Kudret really isn't sure what else he can say without sounding cliche, stupid, or spill something that wasn't meant to be told. On the other hand, if she did ask him directly, he would tell her the truth. On his own honor code, he could do no less. "They're not harmed, if that's what you're thinking," he added finally.

"They're...not?" Mizuki breathed a sigh of relief, momentarily closing her eyes, though opened them again soon after and shook her head. "I don't want to rest...every time I do, that man is there..." She took another break from talking, though then continued again. "So if they're not here...where are they? You said something about Rikazu...needing an outlet for his emotions...what does that mean? Is he...alright?" "You need to call her back", Kuja mentioned as he continued to observe the situation. They weren't getting anywhere like this, and it was clear that the girl down below had no intention of fighting back. "What was that?" Ayanami shot a glare at the silver-haired male. Kuja let out a sigh. "You're trying to teach her a lesson, aren't you?" "One that she won't learn if I go easy on her now", Ayanami responded coldly, crossing his arms. Kuja shook his head at the man. He was going to have to be careful with his wording here. "And yet if you don't call her back, she'll only end up breaking down and the only thing you'll 'gain' out of teaching her this lesson is that she'll fear you even more", he paused a moment. "There are other ways to teach her something." "What do you have in mind?" Despite Ayanami's cold demeanor, his interest was piqued at Kuja's words, and there was a slight grin on his face.

The sound of electricity could be heard emanating from the smoke where the Hybrid had tanked her own blast, another shooting out from the smoke, whilst the blast hadn't done any significant damage to her, it had nicely disposed of the shirt she'd been wearing, the Second Blast connected with her target, but did nothing more than divert it's attention to her for a moment, "Ohhh? Feel that one did you? Come over here then so I can smack you about a bit!" she'd already shot upwards, hanging the air, humming with that electricity she seemed capable of self-generating in Level two of her transformations, *Yeah, not taking this down by myself, Level One did nothing, Level Two just annoyed it and Level Three would probably just give it a nice bruise, unless I can shoot a concentrate down it's throat, which leaves me wide open to other effects... distraction, an annoying fly getting in the face of an angry elephant, easy.* Ama had now returned, after dropping a Bandage Roll at Toré's feet on her way through, "Right then, still not back so I'll wait a little bit for a more active headcount, if anyone would be interested in my plans, gather round.* cross-legged on the floor, unmistakable blueprints laid in front of her, mostly not for building, but rather of structures and locations within said structures, "So first is the world with those Atlamilia thingies, time-travel huh... disgusting."

Kudret had to think for a few moments to figure out what he could say. "He's not harmed physically," he explained, "But he is extremely worried for you and angry at the man who did this. His emotions were causing his magic to grow out of control, so I suggested he leave and use his magic against some monsters to calm himself down." He waited a bit and then added, "I didn't see where Kuja went myself, but I suspect his reason may be for the same reason as Rikazu." The beastman finally let go of her arm, settling his paw down so that he was merely leaning on the bed. "If you don't wish to rest, then we can simply think of something else to do. I could tell stories," he offered. Aislin fired the spear again, backing away slightly to avoid getting stomped on. The girl had circled slightly to avoid being near the head, but she hadn't gone too far away from it. Thankfully it seemed willing to target Celere than target her, so Aislin just kept firing and looked for a good spot to use the bazooka. ((I'll do Kahlua in the next post))